The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-09
HARD LINES.
Shocking Life Led by Laborers on
on the Panama Canal.

Robert L. Knox, who has been con
nected with the Panama Railway TO
the past six months, was passenger OIL
the steamer acapulco, which arrived
here September 10th. He was brakinl
on the railway, and resigned his posi-
ton several weeks before sailing.
II lett Baltimora last winter" he said
"to look after work. l had been idle
for some tim aud didn't care much
what l took hold of. 1 got an offer tc
go to Panama and brake on the rail-
way. and, thinking of what 1 had been
told of the climate, and being glad
enough to get an opportunity to go to
work, I accepted the offer.
81 arrived at Panama in due season
and was about to begin work two days
after leaving the steamer when l was
seized with a terrible fever. The air is
thick aud unhealthy, and / could
scarcely breathe. l was convalescent
at the emf of week, but l had some,
thing OF the appearance of a skeleton,
being only ghost of my former
self.
Its not necessary to relate my own
eX perience; what was mine is that of
every one who goes there 10 stay.
panama comes nearer b. ing Hades
than any place | was ever in. In the
rainy season the cOlOred people die of
like herd of cattle when disease
spreads among them. In one place on
the line daily funeral trains are run.
The cemetery is fourteen miles from
Aspinwall, and IN the rainy season /
have seen FIVE trains drive down there.
They have curious way of burying
people there. When the train reaches
the graveyard the corpse is thrown into
q hole two or three feet deep and the
coffin is taken back to carry some other
poor unfortunate to his last resting
place.
Invent down one day to see the canal
laburers at work, and | never will for
get what saw there. ABOUT 4U0 men
were at work in this one place. Everv
nationality was presented. There
was the Scandinavian toiling in his
mechanical Wav the Hibernian as
joking while he shoveled. the African
negro, the Jamaica negro, Megicans,
English, French, Russians. Turks, all
we're there, aud the John China
man, with his nstty cue, worked
in a broken-hesrted manner, sigh
ing tor the Flowery Kingdom,
which he left, hoping to better
his fortune in a foreign country
Where the men were at work the
ground was soft: muddy you would call
it here. When it is muddy there the
ground is Ike mush two f. ct deep. II
was soft that day anu fifty or more
fresh colOred fellow, had been brought
In. In the afternoon the heat and the
ar had their etfrCt~ upon them and one
by one they fell. l saw one man nit Oh
the head by the exCaVating machine.
He was killed. The body Was i'm
medistaIy hOisted into the dumping
tube sent through the machine, n d
that vas the last seen of him. Y u
can see some shocking sights down
there.
AT nightfall when the men are
through work Tor tue day, they begin q
II ghf'S debauch on whisky Struggled
into camp. Whisky is not allowed
around. but it IS impossible for the
superlnte1d" to enforce the rules
7 he men will drink. Ii they did not |
believe they would go crazy. When
they become intoxicated, nothing will
satisfy them bur fight.
"If they wou d fight with their fists il
would not be so bad. bat long. SHARP
knives are drawn and are red vi b blood
before shesthed again. Sometimes the
most horrible butcheries are com
mitted, ana while one man is bling
stabbed and hacsed 10 pieces, the Others
Btaud Off.and jeer. and comment on ia,
beauty ri the CUniest
lin big city y"u can see human
nature IN Dad forms, but the worst
forms If wee pIacticed IN New York
and London ana Paris are nuWner,
when compared with what can be seeli
every da' on the isthmus
After one of the conductors on the
railway shot one of the canal workers
who attempted his life they are very
careful how they treat tn, railway
hands The latter go well armed, snd
ON The first motion maue by any of the
blacks the pistol is drawn Ii the con-
dGcturs were not careful and fearless
the trains would be held up frequently
The American government has not
the name that England has TN the 18th
mus of Panama.
"One reason is that the United States
does not protect her citizens in afOreign
country. 1t the conductor who shot
the native last winter had been an Eng
iIsnman there wnnid have heen less
trou ble.-San Francisco Examiner.